The diagnostics of hard drives (HDDs) or removable hard drives are almost the most important for ensuring the operability of the entire computer system and the proper storage of information without losing data in unforeseen situations. HDD operation monitoring should be carried out regularly. Let's consider what programs for diagnosing a hard drive exist today and what they are capable of.
What is the diagnosis of hard drives?
To start, let's dwell on some of the most important aspects. Monitoring and diagnosing a hard drive includes several basic processes. The most significant here are the following: preliminary collection of information about the state of the hard drive (monitoring), checking the hard drive (scanning), fixing errors and restoring data (if it is not possible to fix errors programmatically).
In principle, the utility programs for diagnosing the hard drive themselves must be divided according to their direct functions (informants, scanners, "doctors" and recovery agents). More about them will be discussed a little later, although today there are many software packages that combine all these functions.
The most common HDD problems
In considering the issue of what are the best programs for diagnosing a hard drive, it is worthwhile to dwell on the most common problems and errors that they are able to fix.
First of all, system errors are considered to be the most common, which can occur when there is a malfunction in the Windows OS itself, incorrect shutdown of applications, incorrect copying or moving to other areas of HDD files and folders, sudden power outages, etc. In principle, most such problems are identified and resolved by the program for diagnosing the hard drive.
Another thing is when the user is faced with a situation of physical damage to the surface of the hard drive. Here the problem is much more complicated. Programmatically transferring information to another area and section is sometimes possible, but damaged areas, alas, are not subject to recovery. If there are a lot of them, in the worst case you have to change the hard drive. Of course, you can try to recover some of the information yourself, but in especially severe cases, say, after a temperature jump, when the hard drive melted, such a procedure without the intervention of specialists will simply be impossible.
Information Preview
Now let us dwell on specialized utilities that allow you to collect and view complete information about the state, operation and basic characteristics of the hard drive. According to experts and users, the most popular are utilities such as Everest, CPU-Z, CrystalDiscInfo, etc.
Any program for diagnosing hard drives of this orientation allows you to view the full report, and it will contain much more information than in standard reports of the Windows OS, although you can still see something using such tools.
By the way, it is incorrect to assume that monitoring applications fix any errors or malfunctions. They were originally created only in order to view all the parameters of the equipment, and certainly not affect their settings. In this regard, only the CrystalDiscInfo utility can manage some parameters of the HDD.
However, some parameters can be viewed and adjusted even when accessing the BIOS before starting the system directly. But even there the information is far from complete, and a change in the parameters will affect, say, a fan or something else. But here are some settings for hard drive controllers sometimes have to apply.
Checking HDD using Windows OS
As for the "OSes" of the Windows family, there is a minimal set for checking the hard drive for errors, as well as for fixing them. But this applies only to system errors.
In the monitoring plan, information can be viewed by calling the "Properties" menu from the context menu with a right click on the "My Computer" icon. For more information, see the DirectX dialog box, which is called from the command line or the Run menu by entering the dxdiag command. In any case, the information contained in these reports cannot be compared with what the free utilities offer.
In Windows, the "native" program for diagnosing hard drives is called very simply. To do this, in the standard "Explorer" on the letter of the disk or partition, right-click, and from the drop-down menu, again select the line "Properties". On the tab “General” (or “Service”) there is a special button “Run scan”.
In the menu that appears, you can check the box next to the line for automatic error correction. If this is not done, the system will simply display a message stating that errors have been detected and need to be fixed. In some cases, it will not be possible to eliminate problems even with automatic error correction, and with each subsequent loading of the “OS”, an obsessive message will appear stating that one of the disks requires verification. Agree, it’s quite inconvenient, especially since even a given test of the surface of the hard drive takes a lot of time. Here it is better to use special programs for diagnosing an advanced hard drive. By the way, the effect of their use will affect immediately. Any user will be able to see the result even, so to speak, with an inexperienced look.
Hard drive diagnostics: programs for testing HDD for bad sectors
Naturally, among the software for monitoring the operation or the main parameters of any type of hard drives, you can find a lot of paid, shareware or completely free utilities. What is most interesting, as practice shows, free applications are often not inferior to licensed software and cope with the functions assigned to them quite effectively.
Among the whole variety, it is worth highlighting utilities such as Norton Disc Doctor, HDD Scan, Hard Disc Sentinel, the same CrystalDiscInfo application, as well as CheckDisc or something like that. A special utility called Data Lifeguard Diagnostics, designed specifically for WD hard drives, is perfect for Western Digital hard drives.
Interestingly, some utilities come even in portable versions and take up just a few megabytes of space.
All utilities of this type have a fairly simple and understandable interface for any user, in which you just need to select the desired drive and set a few parameters for scanning and error correction. In principle, the same Disc Doctor of “Norton’s grandfather” allows you to specify a drive or partition, as well as use the parameters of checking the hard drive for bad sectors and automatic error correction. Separately, in the advanced settings, you can set the Surface Test ( HDD surface test ).
Check HDD for physical damage
Unfortunately, physical damage to the surface of an HDD or removable hard drive is a very common problem. This may be due to dust, overheating, short circuit in electrical circuits, etc.
Check the physical condition of the hard drive is quite simple. You just need to ask for help from the relevant programs and applications that within a few minutes will find problems, if any.
Principles of fixing HDD errors in physically damaged sectors
In principle, testing the surface of disks can be done by some standard utility for the HDD or a diagnostic program for the external hard drive. This is not the point. The main thing is that such utilities can overwrite information (checksums) from the damaged sectors to the backup areas of the disk. Thus, an interesting effect is achieved. In fact, the logical address of the sector does not change, although in fact the physical location on the hard drive is completely different. In general, almost all applications of this type use this principle. In addition, for the most part they are designed for completely different file systems and partition table formats.
Victoria: a program for diagnosing a hard drive
Separately, it is worth stopping at the unique Victoria program of its kind. It has truly the most powerful features in its field. True, some experts recommend using a version that works on the basis of DOS. Well, in some cases this is a legitimate step.
The application itself was developed by the Belarusian programmer S.O. Kazantsev and has established itself in the computer world at a very high level. It is not surprising that in the West it is now used very often. I must say that this utility is a multifunctional package that combines the ability to monitor and test hard drives of any type and any manufacturer, the ability to automatically fix errors and recover data even with very significant damage to hard drives.
Although for an uninitiated user this software package may seem somewhat overloaded with features and settings, but professionals appreciate it. Perhaps today nothing better has been created yet, since the program itself can be classified as All-In-One ("all-in-one").
Data Recovery of Damaged HDD
Of course, you can restore data using the Victoria utility, but few ordinary users will deal with it. In this case, you should advise something simpler.
So, for example, the best hard drive data recovery programs include many powerful utilities. You can use applications such as HDD Regenerator.
According to the developers of this package themselves, they found a unique way to use certain algorithms of signal sequences that literally restore physically damaged sectors of hard drives not just by copying information to other sections, but using a magnetization reversal technique for this. This achieves the effect when information from the damaged area does not disappear anywhere, but is read after recovery.
Naturally, if reading heads or a spindle flew on the hard drive, no even the most modern programs will help. However, in most cases, software and, as we see, even physical problems can be fixed.
Additional BIOS Options
As for the additional settings, many programs for diagnosing hard disks sometimes in the process of analyzing the hard drive may generate errors or simply not see it.
In this case, you need to change the SATA controller parameter in the BIOS, most often just change from AHCI to IDE. This should help.
The most common myths and misconceptions
Very often, inexperienced users who use diagnostic programs or for the first time viewing the parameters of a hard drive or fan in the BIOS have a panic, they say, the temperature is too high (for example, 40 degrees), the hard drive will “fly” in this operating mode. Nothing like this! For almost all hard drives, the optimal operating temperature range is from 35 to 45 degrees Celsius. Even a value of 50 degrees for many hard drives is not critical. Worse, when the temperature drops below 25 degrees, then the likelihood of a hard drive crashing is much higher. However, this is extremely rare, except when working in the cold (I think it is unlikely that someone has the mind to do this).
Diagnostics of the hard drive. Which program is better?
So, although briefly, we examined the question of what is the diagnosis of a hard disk. A program (which is better for the user to decide) designed for analysis, test and error correction, in principle, can be any. What to use - a specialized or highly targeted product? The answer to this question depends on what exactly this or that application should be able to. Some prefer separate programs, some tend to use packages that combine all the features for working with HDD.
For inexperienced users, simple free utilities are suitable, especially since even portable versions do not weigh so much and have the functions of a smart scan SMART without damage to the system. But for professionals, the best in their field, of course, is the Victoria program. This is not discussed.
Conclusion
In general, if you deal with testing hard drives and monitoring their condition, in the end you can add only one thing: in order to prevent catastrophic situations, at least some kind of hard drive diagnostic program should be regularly used. In some cases, even simple cleaning of the computer from dust with a conventional vacuum cleaner (naturally, without fanaticism) will help. According to statistics, for those who check the hard drive at least once a month and monitor the general condition of a computer or laptop, the percentage of HDD failures is much lower than for users who never think about it, but who try to correct the situation when everything will go to extremes.